On my way to work, a man dressed up in a tux offered me a rose. I guess they were promoting The Bachelorette – although I don’t watch the show, who am I to say no to a rose on a Monday morning?

I couldn’t wait to eat my lunch. It was all leftovers + the usual salad, but these leftovers were special.

Two slices of my whole wheat chicken and spinach pizza! YUM!

With baby carrots.

And fresh cherries.

In the afternoon, I snacked on some puffed spelt rice cakes, and polished off my bag of buttered popcorn Crispy Minis that I bought over the weekend.

A few hours later, I was still feeling peckish, so I snacked on a few mixed nuts. Problem solved!

Dinner was pretty fabulous if I do say so myself. Over the weekend, I went a little nuts purchasing tempeh and veggie products. Why? Because they’re easier to cook and last longer than raw meat, and a really easy way to get my protein during the week when I have little time to cook.

Tonight, I cracked open the Coconut Curry Marinated Tempeh that I purchased and grilled them with my cast iron grill (LOVE that grill!) with a little bit of cooking spray to keep the tempeh from sticking.

Since I did a fair amount of snacking during the day, I kept dinner light with spring mix, tomato, cucumber, and grilled tempeh topped with a simple homemade vinaigrette and Sriracha sauce.

In the end, I started munching on a few Mary’s Organic Crackers like it was my job (that was a bit unfortunate!).

A few hours later, I ended the evening with some kiwi, blueberries, homemade hazelnut butter and a steaming mug of ginger herbal tea.

Afternoon snack was a dried white fig and a piece of cranberry and pumpkin seed Stonemill bread with some homemade hazelnut butter spread over it. Yes, it was out of this world — I’m excited for tomorrow’s afternoon snack because it will be the same thing!

After work, I attended my first marathon clinic. Hearing my coach talk about the 3 core run + 2 cardiovascular workouts (resistance training not included) really got me worried. Of course I want to run this marathon, I am dedicated and committed to it (plus I’ve paid for everything at this point, including my hotel room!) but… wow, it is going to be very challenging to fit in 5 cardio work outs and 2 RT work outs each week while trying to stay sane and not risk overtraining.

Dinner was simple. I was starving by the time I got home from my clinic so I just started throwing things together.

The first part was easy – I made a simple salad dressing with flaxseed oil, rice wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, turmeric powder, dill, and red pepper flakes.

Then I toasted up my last piece of pizza – it looked so lonely in the fridge! I couldn’t resist.

Then I mixed together cooked sweet potato (with skin, yes!), leftover sauteed spinach (I was worried about it going bad!), leftover shredded chicken, turmeric powder, 2 tsp plain yogurt, and Sriracha sauce. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I ate this, but it was surprisingly tasty and filling. Score for random mix-meals!

I finished off the evening with a mug of ginger tea and catching up with my blog.

And, as promised, I’ve included the recipe for the Vegan CHEEZY Pizza Sauce and Homemade Roasted Hazelnut Butter. Enjoy, experiment, and let me know what you think!

♦♦♦

Vegan CHEEZY Pizza Sauce

Last Friday, all I could think about was pizza. All day long, I thought about different ways I was going to satisfy my craving, and when it was time to go home for the day, I decided that a whole wheat homemade pizza would be a perfect way to end the evening (and kick off raceweekend!).

salt to taste (I skipped this by accident – at first I thought it was a big mistake, but once I added balsamic vinegar to my pizza, I forgot about the lack of salt completely)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients together in a small bowl and mix well.

Allow the pizza sauce to sit for at least 30 minutes to allow flavours to blend.

Since I had an entire container of spinach on its last legs, I decided to make a spinach and chicken pizza. I know, why did I bother making vegan pizza sauce to put on a chicken pizza? Well, for one, I didn’t have any parmesan on hand, and I’ve actually come to really love the nutty taste of this stuff! I’m not exactly lactose-intolerant but I definitely do feel the effects of too much dairy (one of the reasons why I had to stop eating cottage cheese on a daily basis).

I have made pizza dough from scratch in the past and it’s actually really easy! However, I was hungry and did not want to wait for the dough to rise. Instead, I picked up some pre-made whole wheat pizza dough from Longo’s. I also don’t have a rolling pin (I know, I know), so I used my hands to stretch out the dough. It wasn’t a perfect circle, but in a way, that’s what made my pizza perfect. 🙂

I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was to resist devouring this pizza (I made two!).

I really couldn’t believe how easy it is to make nut butter. I was gifted a mini food processor last year that sat in the box on the shelf for almost a year. Now I use it all the time! How could I resist, when I could be using it to make raw energy bars and creamy nut butters?

When I decided to test out a nut butter recipe, I wanted to go easy on my first time. In true FF style, I also looked for a method/recipe with the least amount of ingredients possible. The less I have to put in my food, the happier (and more sane!) I am. Sarah’s recipe won because I loved how easily she laid everything out, and I just happened to have a whole package of raw hazelnuts to play with. Like I said before, it was so incredibly easy to make this, I’m not sure that I’ll ever buy store-made nut butter again!

Homemade Roasted Hazelnut Butter

Ingredients:
2 cups shelled hazelnuts (yes – THAT’S IT!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275°F. When ready, spread out raw hazelnuts onto a baking pan and roast for 30 minutes (Sarah says 20-30, but I actually found that they probably could have been left in longer as some of the skins were mighty stubborn!).

Once hazelnuts are cooled down, remove the skins. If the hazelnuts are roasted long enough, the skins should easily peel/rub off with your fingers.

Transfer cooled hazelnuts into a food processor and process away until it breaks down and transforms into a gorgeous smooth and creamy looking paste.